Somewhere around our first date, Breanna mentioned that she always wanted to have alpacas, some time after that, to impress my new girlfriend, I brazenly promised her that I would make sure she eventually had them. She has ingeniously forgotten most of the things Ive promised during our courtship, but the alpaca promise was one she refused to let go. So last week, after moving a newly purchased and previously disassembled greenhouse to the farm in about ten thousand different…

We ordered bees months ago, and of course, I still hadnt finished the basic beekeeping book before they arrived. I had put together the bee hive and installed the frames, but I was never more unprepared for anything as I was for getting bees. We had ordered a nuc. Which is basically a nucleus colony that comes in a box, you just take it home and put the frames, with queen and bees, into your hive and voila, you have…

As I write this, we are at least three weeks behind in our planting and working hard to catch up, I should probably be outside working, but its getting dark. We have had a very trying late winter/early spring. Originally we were going to rent two acres from someone, but that deal didnt work out in the end. I didnt feel our needs would be met and we ended up walking away from the land. The problem is, that this…

Our first winter growing season is over, and we were amazed by the results we got. We trialed a lot of different vegetables in the unheated high tunnel and for the most part, they performed very well. Having planted mostly in October (a little later than I’d hoped) we got a few cuttings of arugula, mizuna, the lettuce mix and spinach. It was so much fun to walk through the snow in the middle of a 30 degree day and…

We recently purchased a greens harvester, it’s a great little tool that harvests greens in a fraction of the time it takes by hand. We are probably going to use this next year to grow baby greens as well as the leaf greens we produced this year. This video was the second time we used it, hopefully I’ll get the hang of it quickly.

Our high tunnel is completed and we have begun putting in crops. We have planted transplants as well as direct seededing. It’s only been a few days but the transplants are looking pretty good and many of the seeds have germinated. Everything took a little longer than I was expecting, I had hoped to have it planted two weeks ago. What we are trying to do is grow vegetables throughout the winter in an unheated high tunnel. The high…

People often ask me about winter, how do make money on a farm in winter? What are you planning to do? We have recently started on a project I’ve been interested in for a very long time, winter growing. Late last winter we installed a low tunnel, basically a plastic covered half circle that was about three feet high. It worked very well and we harvested very early crops of arugula, bok choy, radishes and more. We are planning on…

A while ago, I had noticed something was chewing on some of our seedlings. It was inside the fenced in area, which is always a fun surprise. The next few days I noticed more damage and tried to look for animal tracks, but didn’t find any. One day while walking in the garden I scared up the hidden rabbit and he shot across the garden and out a small hole in the fence. I decided to come back the next…

This is the time of year when many gardeners hit the wall. It’s hot and humid, there are mosquitos, and the weeds seem to be on steroids. Staying motivated is difficult. We’ve already eaten our first tomato and all the plants are basically doing well. Friends are going away for long weekends while I’m trying to find the motivation to go outside in this weather and pull weeds or plant something after already working a full day. Early last week…

This is one of our favorite things to do with zucchini. We bake them instead of frying them and they are just as delicious Connie’s zucchini crab cakes Print Recipe We bake them on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes. CourseMain Dish CuisineMain course Prep Time 20 Minutes Cook Time 10 Minutes Prep Time 20 Minutes Cook Time 10 Minutes Connie’s zucchini crab cakes Print Recipe We bake them on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees…